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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Bon Iver

Bon Iver

2011

Bon Iver

Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Bon Iver (; officially known as Bon Iver, Bon Iver) is the second studio album from American indie folk band Bon Iver, released on June 17, 2011. The album is composed of 10 songs and was seen as a new musical direction for the band. The album was commercially successful, debuting at number one on the Norwegian Albums Chart and the Danish Albums Chart, and number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. It sold 104,000 copies in its first week in the United States. As of September 2016, the album has sold a total of 629,000 copies in the United States. It received widespread acclaim from critics, some of whom named it one of the best albums of 2011. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the 2012 ceremony, while the song "Holocene" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.41

Votes

74

Genres

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Reviews

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Jun 20 2025
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1

Why are we still adding bands with multiple albums present already? You'd think the user list at least wouldn't be so fucking basic. Add a fuckin ICP album already, you milquetoast hipsters. 1/5.

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Jun 17 2025
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5

I personally like this Bon Iver album the most. The songs are mature and have an original sound. The first album was folk and singer-songwriter stuff, this album is all about nature in epic soundscapes. Listening to it feels like sitting on a porch at a cabin at the edge of the forest looking to the clouds passing by. Almost too bad that Vernon started experimenting even further on the following albums.

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Jun 15 2025
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4

The debut album has that energy of an outpouring following a decade's build-up which is hard to beat, though I think this is in some ways a more mature and consciously realized album. Regardless it's a very strong sophomore offering. Holocene is one of my absolute favorite songs of the decade.

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Jun 20 2025
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4

The second bon iver album is amazing in many ways and in some even better than the original. Less melancholic and with a stronger sense of nostalgia and appealing to the senses this album is a great listen. Holocene is one of Bon Iver’s best songs. This is fantastic but not quite as good overall as the debut. 8.6/10

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Jun 16 2025
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5

Typical Bon Iver sound. I love it

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Jun 17 2025
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5

More Bon Iver… and it’s good Bon Iver. Dramatic, interesting, and lovely.

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Jun 15 2025
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4

Most of it is pretty good, except for the yacht rock nonsense…

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Jun 17 2025
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4

Another solid 40 minutes of bon iver music. Somewhat less sad than for Emma forever ago.

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Jun 20 2025
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4

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Perth, Michicant

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Jul 02 2025
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4

My second favourite Bon Iver album, after for Emma, it gets a bit too pretentious after this.

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Jun 15 2025
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3

I have a love/hate relationship with Bon Iver. Some of his music I think is beautiful, while some is pretentious and unlistenable. This I found to be more of the former. 3 stars.

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Jun 15 2025
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3

Beth/Rest sounds like it was ripped from 80s smooth ballads

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Jun 15 2025
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3

Falsetto folk isn’t my thing and maybe it deserved one entry into the overall list but I don’t think we needed six or whatever

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Jun 16 2025
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3

Post-rock, chamber folk, chamber pop, experimental. Ni fu ni fa.

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Jun 18 2025
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3

Very mellow, but not boring in a way that drags down what I'm doing when using it for background music

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Jun 19 2025
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3

I've listened to a few Bon Iver LPs by now, but this one surprised me – I wasn't expecting how varied and lively the instrumentation would be, and really enjoyed the richness of the production. This is still a singer-songwriter LP at the end of the day and felt a bit slow to me in parts, but the album still punched well above its weight for a genre I'm not typically a fan of.

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Jun 28 2025
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3

This was nice. Earthy and melancholy. A bit slow moving for my mood today, but well done. Fave Songs: Holocene, Towers, Perth, Wash., Michicant

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Jun 22 2025
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2

This is tepid in a way that makes you think that Justin wossisface has gone out of his way to make luke-warm music. You'd expect to hear this in a chain coffee house. If you heard it in a pub, you'd leave.

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